Contributed
Ites working on one of the pieces for the exhibition. He works from home at Winters Pen, St Catherine.

Works from four local art groups will be included in a major art project entitled 'Windows to The World' - a permanent mural for a community centre in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The mural consists of 16 big paintings (2x3m) that will replace 16 blocked windows in the big hall of the community centre, serving as windows to the world -seen through different styles of art.

The overall concept has to do with universal togetherness and building cultural bridges among citizens of the world through artistic interaction, as well as by transforming a community centre into a small international museum of art.

Twelve of the 16 paintings have been produced collectively by children and young street artists in Gambia and Denmark. The last four paintings are now being produced in Jamaica at the Centre for Language and Culture, Grosvenor Terrace, Manor Park, by children and youths from six-20 years; Ites Art in Winters Pen, Spanish Town, a Bobo Shanti creative community; the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts and the Bellevue Hospital, using works produced through the institution's art therapy project.

On Friday, August 15, the mural will be presented at a big event in Copenhagen, where the public will be invited to varnish the paintings (just as it happened in the old days when artists invited their friends and family to come and varnish the paintings). The production of a multimedia website as well as a book describing the creative process will summarise the entire project.

The responsible organisation Artkunda (meaning art house in Mandinka, a Gambian dialect) aims to extend this pilot project into a sustainable art business with 'mobile' studios in Gambia, Denmark and Jamaica, including future multimedia productions, workshops, exhibitions and mural decorations.

Animistic intuitive

"Artkunda works with children, young street artists and other artists in order to obtain a more non-academic and 'free' approach and feeling towards productions based in animistic, intuitive, relational art (art-air)" says Emil Klem, co-ordinator of the project.

With a background in graffiti art and collective action painting in various art groups, Artkunda is a natural progression of Klem's previous works. Artkunda serves as a 'brand' and a creative umbrella under which selected artists can work on a freelance basis, while being introduced to the international art market.

"It is my prime objective to make Artkunda financially independent as a professional art business, since economical freedom is the only way to realise and manifest the full potential of the creative visions. So far this pilot project has been financed, in part, by CKU (Centre for Cultural Exchange in Denmark) Artkunda," Klem explains.